Science.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2047, 25 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Science.

A Flying Machine— The report just made public by Professor Isaac Lancaster, as the result of Ida observations regarding tbe flight of birds, contains many statements equally novel anil extraordinary. Tbe problem, to the solution of which the professor's atteniion was chiefly addressed, was that which concerns motionless wing flight. With a view to conducting his experiments under the most favorable circumstances possible, be spent five years on the tlulf Coast of South Florida, watching the frigate birds, pelicans, eagles and cranes which congregate along that shore in vast numbers, lie observed a group of twenty buzzards, on one occasion, for fourteen consecutive hours, during which they rested in the eca-breeze absolutely motionless, not a dozen flaps being made for each bird. He saw frigate birds move on fixed wings against a tempest of eighty miles an homy at a speed equal to that of tbe wind itself. The professor finally made up his mind that if a feathered creature could float indefinitely without using muscular exertion, a hoard or body of the same weight and shape ought to be able to do the same thing. Acting upon this supposition he constructed floating planes, which would draw into the breeze from the hand and simulate the soaring birds perfectly, moving on horizontal lines, or on any inclination to a vertical. These “ eftigics ” would float for hours in any steady wind, although they wore occasionally capsized by a variation in the air current. 15ut the most interesting experiment tried was with a balanced arm, rotating in a horizontal plane like a merry-go-round. The frigate birds, Professor Lancaster noticed, had away of going round and round in enormous ami interminable circles on fixed wings tbe whole day long, and if they could do this sort of thing he thought a piano of the weight and the dimensions of the frigate bird ought to move in the same manner if similarly placed. Not being able to make tbe experiment a mile high, he tried it from the top of a lighthouse with a rotating arm of 91 feet long and planes 21 by 12 feet. The machine would only operate in calm air, but under such conditions it traveled several days without stopping, thus solving the problem of perpetual motion.

The question Of telephony >• telegraphy has been recently discussed by a well-known German electrician, Dr. Wietlishbach. The chief hindrance to the use of the telephone for long distances is, he points out, of a financial, not of a technical, nature. A tele-phone-line 200 km. long costs considerably over £50,000. It is still possible to speak very well this distance ; but even supposing the line were in constant use day and night, the receipts must be » shillings a minute to make it pay. In telephone work, however, the line is in use only for a few hours.daily ; hence a short conversation would cost at leas £2. 10. That is, of course, too dear fnr ordinary traffic. The telegraph works, with almost the same speed, more than ten times more cheaply. Thus the question as to rivalry between telephone and telegraph finds its settlement. The telephone, up to about 800 km. distance (say 310 miles), will more and more displace the telegraph, and find an extension which the telegraph would never reach. But for greater distances the telegraph must keep the upper hand. The telephone and telegraph are really not rivals, but fitted to supplement each other.

The Great Lick Telescope —Professor A. C. Voting, in Scieiwf Ach-.v, says : The object-glass of the great Lick telescope is now practically completed, and only awaits examination and Approval by the experts who are to be appointed by the Lick trustees to test it. This enormous lens, by far the largest ever made, is thirty-six inches in diameter, and has a focal length of fifty seven feet. It is composed of two lenses, of which the front one (outside) is an equi-oonvex lens of crown glass, while the other is a concave lens of flint glass; one side of this—the one next to the eye—is very slightly concave—in fact almost flat; the other next the crown-glass lens, is considerably concave, the curvature being somewhat deeper than that of the crown-glass surfaces. The inner surfaces of the two lenses are separated by a clear airspace of about six and a half inches, and there are perforations in the steel cell that allow a free circulation of air between them. The glass discs were made by Kiel, of Paris, and they have been figured and worked by Clark at bis modest but famous establishment in Cambridgeport.

The grease Of sheep’s wool, a substance hardly utilised hitherto, may now find use, according to a process lately brought before tbe French National Society of Agriculture by M. Hobart. He finds that, brought to its point of fusion, it very readily absorbs certain sulphur-compounds ; thus it will fix as ranch ns 100 times its volume of sulphuretted hydrogen; andso treated it becomes saponifiable in the cold state. M. Hobart presented some excellent soap made from grease. The operation required takes less than an hour, whereas soaps with a base of soda generally take (i to 8 hours in their production. Moreover the saponification can ho obtained completely without caustic alkalies, ami simply with alkaline carbonates ; a now scientific fact, applicable to all fatty matters when sulphurised. Thus a great economy is possible. This sulphurised soap is reconiendod by M. Hobart, inter alia, for use in vinecultivation.

The successful cultivation, since 1888 of the Hamie or China grass plant {Hoc linin'in nicca ) on the Champ-de-l’Air at Lausanne (altitude 520 m.), by Prof. Schnctzler, is an interesting fact in Botany. This shrub, a native of China and Sumatra, has been grown in the south of the United States and of France for thirty years. Recently it has been introduced into Algeria. There ia of course a striking difference in the conditions of temperature between Lausanne and the places in Asia where Hamie is grown. While the latitude of the latter is from 15 dog. to 35 deg. that of Lausanne is MO deg. 31. The mean temperature at Lausanne Is 0 deg - 3 C. Last winter the plants underwent long periods of groat cold ; in one case e.g., the thermometer being below zero for 121 hours, with a minimum on the ground of 12 deg -5 C.

Adulteration of Silk.— The weighting of silk by means of tin, is, according to M, Moyret, increasing every day, and some surprising results are obtained on raw, boiled off, or souple silk, an increase of from 100 to 120 per cent, in weight being obtained. The bichloride of tin obtained by the oxidation of ordinary tin salt (or stannus chloride) by means of aqua regia is in favor for blaokdyed silks, but for white or colors it has some drawbacks, and is therefore not used. For the purpose of charging or weighting white or light colored silks, better results are obtained from the tin bichloride produced by the oxidation of tin salt by means of chlorate of potash and hydrochloric acid.

In a recent thesis on the modificatian of plants by climate, Mr. Crozier, of Michigan University, considers it established “that as plants move from tbe locality of theirlargest development towards their northern limit of growth, they become dwarfed in habit, are rendered more fruitful, and all parts become more highly coloured. Their comparative loaf surface is often increased, their form modified,and then-composition changed. Their period of growth is also shortened, ami they are enabled to develop at n. lower temperature,”

Boiled Milk leaves (be beallby sl-nm-li mu.b sooner 1 ban unboiled milk and its digestion is more vapidly accomplished.